do you know anyone who had anything stolen, or witnessed an attempted theft at the burning man festival in 2003?

if one of the cops sees you doing that, you will be arrested for assault. Preventing violence and keeping the peace is one of the few things a cop is good for.

Well that's not always the case. How familiar with Nevada law are you? My understanding is that you can defend your home (tent, RV) with any quantity of force you deem reasonable. You can defend your property with a bit less.

By all means deter theft, but do not assault anyone. You won't get a six pack of beer, you'll get a few days in the gerlach jail.

I'm guessing that you have never lived in the sticks. Rural laws are interpreted differently that city laws. Where I come from, shooting somebody for being in your house is legal. Beating the fuck out of them for stealing is OK.
Now I live in L.A. and have to put up with liberal bullshit feelgood laws. And I'm not any safer.

But I fully defend your right to ask the cops to do it for you.

A few years ago, I caught a guy throwing bicycles into our burn platform. He was chased down and caught. We gave him the option of "dealing with it ourselves" or getting the cops involved. He saw the number of guys who were there, and walked away. Somebody had gone to the esplanade to get cops, and when he walked into the circle, there were 6 or 7 cop cars waiting for him. It was funny.

still, if I had found the guy who had been wearing my uber coat for the week before my campmates did I think I would have done him violence. As far as the law goes, you are allowed to use force on a fleeing fellon. So, depending on the value of the bike or other item in question, you might be well within your legal rights opening that can of whoopass.

Speaking of rural justice, my Dad owned a business (a beer distributorship) in the little town near our farm. It was broken into once. The county Sheriff and a deputy dutifully came by and fingerprinted and whatnot, and expressed his sympathy. He was quite realistic about the whole thing. "Us cop types really can't do much about this sorta thing. We're never lucky enough to see it happening, there could never be enough of us around to do that. What would be good is for you to catch 'em in the act and shoot 'em if you get the chance. Be Goddamned sure to drag their dead ass back inside your building though or the paperwork hassle is going to be awful."

A very low-crime area, it was. It was assumed that the break-in was done by transients as there wasn't a crime wave of any sort. Closest thing to that was when one of the three town losers got into a habit of stealing people's car batteries. (This was back before cars' hoods had locks.) Everybody to whom this happened just shrugged, went over to his house, slapped the shit out of him, and took their battery back.

Later that guy became famous for climbing up the town's watertower with his other two loser friends. Half-way up the guy highest up had to take a leak, so of course he did it on the other two lower down on the ladder. That was a big success so he attempted to shit on him too, but missed.

I kept everything I brought locked up tight and the only thing that went missing was a 1/2 bottle of rum, which I may have left somewhere by accident.

On the frontier justice note, a friend of mine kept losing radios out of his dump trucks at night so he screwed a bunch of treble hooks under the dash of a couple of them. One morning he found a truck without the radio, with the interior trashed, instruments broken, the windows and headlights knocked out and slathered in blood inside and out. But he never lost another radio after that.

This was my first burn, and it was fantastic! I have never experienced so much love, kindness and generosity! there was only one thing that happned to marr this otherwise beautifull experience. On my fourth day there, someone stole all of my personal water supply, all of it!
I thought that was an awfull thing to do! I mean, really low!
And I just wanted to say to the person who did that, thanks, because
of what you did, I passed out in center camp from heat stroke, and spent five houres (time hat could have been much better spent doing ANYTHING else) in the medical tent. Shame on you. As for everyone else, thank you,
you are all beautiful people, god bless!

I've been really, really lucky. I have lost things at Buringinman, but never found my camp broken into. I only locked my bike the 1st day I was there this year.

Now so far on this thread, 2 people have reported having their food and water stolen. Folks, that's a fucking shame. I mean, it's really, really rotten.

On the old e-playa, I had suggested printing up 'bike registration' stickers with a unique serial number on the sticker part and on a 'reciept' that you'd stick into your glove box. Then when the rangers or LEOs find someone with a van full of bikes, they coud ask to see the matching numbers on the reciepts. It's a totally impractical idea, and I'm the first to admit it.

I've got a friend who has 10 sets of night vision goggles. I'm going to see if I can bring togehter a 'Batman' crew for the night of the Burn. The rangers can un-duct tape the 'coyotes' from the trash fence in the morning. That's a bit more practical of an idea.

The most practical however is this:

Meet your neighbors. Talk to them. As new people move in, talk to them and get to know them. Tell them you'll keep an eye on their camp if they keep on on yours. Heck, if you get to town on Monday with your small camp, then plan on making a big dinner for new neighbors on Tuesday. Help them set up quickly. You are an adult now, it's OK to talk to strangers, no matter what the TV tells you.

And then still lock your shit up. When the suspicious guy comes through your camp on friday or saturday (and we've met him, he's the one marking the location of all the generators on a map!) then let your neighbors know they need to lock their shit up, too.

Also, note that Home Despot sells battery operated (well, battery backup) motion sensor 'screamers' that will do in a pinch.

Who the F!ck would steal from EXTRA-ACTION while onboard the amazing CONTESSA? We were lucky enough to admire it while at the surly girl burn, and once back in BRC lamely gifted some wrought-iron and pirate-swag, in an attempt to show our appreciation for that creation.